‘Shield laws’ helped 48,000 people in US states with bans get abortion pills, study finds

Thanks to laws that protect medical providers, thousands of people got pills through telehealth in the last five months of 2023

Over the last five months of 2023, medical providers shipped abortion pills to about 48,000 people living in states that forbid abortions, via new “shield laws” that protect providers who mail pills to people living under abortion restrictions.

Researchers from #WeCount, a project by the Society of Family Planning that studies the impact of abortion restrictions following the toppling of Roe v Wade, first started tracking abortions performed through shield laws in July 2023. In its Tuesday report, the researchers measured the impact of shield laws passed in five blue states – Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Washington state – that protect medical providers from legal repercussions if they ship abortion pills to people in defiance of state bans.